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This guest blog from our colleagues at Archistar takes a look at the way complex processes and regulations slow down property construction, contributing to Australia’s housing crisis. It goes on to look at how...

Say it ain’t so! Trump in 2018: “You look at GDP at 3.2 percent, we’re doing so well… Nobody would have believed it” GDP just hit 4.9 percent under @JoeBiden. pic.twitter.com/5w0TZm9tjU — Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) October 26, 2023 Not counting the gyrations of the pandemic period, it is stronger economic growth than any quarter of the pre-Covid Trump presidency and stronger than any quarter since 2014. https://t.co/xkPejz7Stw https://t.co/0xm4sJ5sPS — Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) October 26, 2023 I guess I’m past hoping that people will ever “feel” that the economy has improved as long as the price of eggs is higher than it was in 2010. But honestly, I think that Trump’s ongoing presence in our political culture makes his followers gleefully pretend that the world has gone to hell since he left office and the rest of us are just depressed and enervated by the relentless chaos he causes. Still, the news is true. The economy is rolling and the relentless doom saying over the past couple of years, predicting an imminent recession, remains wrong.

Many people would argue that, in this case, the inefficiency was primarily in the credit markets, not the stock market—that there was a credit bubble that inflated and ultimately burst. Eugene Fama: I don’t even know what that means. People who get credit have to get it from somewhere. Does a credit bubble mean that […]

Israel’s appalling violations of international law have been on display to the entire world. Since you likely won’t hear about many of them on mainstream media, here are some of the worst war crimes carried out by Israel since October 7, 2023.

The post Here Are Some of the War Crimes Committed by Israel So Far in Gaza appeared first on MintPress News.

MERGING to become one entity, Coffs Regional Community Gardens Association (CRCGA) and Community Use Permaculture Space Inc. (CUPS) members have agreed on a common set of goals which seed a bright future for the gardening group. The merged group will develop multiple garden sites beyond the current Coffs Regional Community Garden in Combine Street as...

The post Community gardens merge to plot fresh ideas appeared first on News Of The Area.

APPLICATIONS are now open for $16 million in NSW Government funding to maintain and improve Crown land reserves for the use of communities across the state, with $14 million in grants and $2 million in loans on offer. Applications for the Crown Reserves Improvement Fund (CRIF) are open until 17 November 2023 through Crown Lands...

The post $16 million for Crown reserve improvements appeared first on News Of The Area.

THREE-year milestone celebrations are brewing for the Coffs Harbour Older Women’s Network (CH OWN), with plans for a birthday bash on Wednesday 8 November and an invitation extended to the community. CH OWN was established in November 2020 and the members are marking their third year of success by going back to the 1940s. Advertise...

The post Coffs Harbour Older Women’s Network celebrates three years appeared first on News Of The Area.

EXTREME fires drove biodiversity declines despite overall resilience after the 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfire season in NSW, a new study suggests. The Black Summer Bushfires burnt an unprecedented area of over five million hectares of eastern Australia, with severe economic, environmental, and human impacts. Advertise with News of The Area today. It’s worth it for...

The post Biodiversity can rebound after bushfires, but recovery lags in the most severely burnt areas appeared first on News Of The Area.

It’s hard to find anything to say about this anymore. A disturbed man takes up one of his easily obtained semi-automatic weapons and mows down a bunch of innocent people. The gun proliferation zealots instantly call for more guns and better mental health. Oh, and thoughts and prayers. It never, ever, changes and I have come to believe that we are now addicted to the cycle of violence as some sort of primitive cleansing ritual. It makes no rational sense. This latest shooter reportedly had mental illness and was hearing voices. According to some reports about his social media, he was also a right winger. Surprise. It also sounds like he and his family are gun extremists. Maybe this guy is lying, but it tracks:

By focusing on the potential dangers of Chinese spy tech, we’ve ignored how roaming itself creates massive vulnerabilities, a new Citizen Lab report says.

The post Vulnerabilities in Cellphone Roaming Let Spies and Criminals Track You Across the Globe appeared first on The Intercept.

Life on Earth is under siege. A chain of tipping points with catastrophic consequences for everyone are being unleashed. Yet governments worldwide remain indifferent to the danger. Indeed, many continue avidly to stoke the very furnaces that will consume our civilisation. The first two statements above are from two new scientific reports, issued this week Continue reading »

The Australian government must withhold all political support from the Israeli government while the killing of Palestinian civilians and destruction of their infrastructure continue. And yet, what hope? On 25 October when acting Prime Minister Richard Marles was asked on radio whether fuel should be allowed into Gaza to allow hospitals to function; he could Continue reading »

The Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) has produced a petition opposing the Force Posture Agreement which is enabling US militarisation of Australia in preparation for the US to support/launch war from the Australian continent against China. The e-petition to parliament is an instrument for peace calling for the termination of the Force Posture Agreement. Continue reading »

The decision to deploy the Australian Defence Forces to the ‘Middle East’ in the middle of the war in Gaza puts the Albanese Government into the same category as many appalling predecessors. If patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels, the cynical exploitation of patriotic fervour means that a government has reached the lowest levels Continue reading »

The Hamas raid into Israel on October 7th, and pounding of the Gazan population that has followed, has seen an unholy alliance reunite: not, or not merely, between Washington and its client states resisting UN calls for a ceasefire, but also in the media, between the Murdoch and Jewish press.  Those of us who follow Continue reading »

The truth of the matter is that Western Governments bear the primary responsibility for both the carnage in Israel and the genocide in Gaza. A historical appraisal of events over the last 100 years shows western governments, responsible for the monstrous inhumanities currently affecting Palestinians and Israelis. Without such an appraisal, it is easy and Continue reading »

The new Speaker of the House is a Christian Right extremist. A sage Dem texts, basically: Repubs are gonna elevate a speaker who tried to overthrow the election and backs an abortion ban – the two issues we won on in 2022 “What are they thinking ?” — Jonathan Martin (@jmart) October 25, 2023 Throw in entitlements and it’s basically every gross rating point Dems have bought in last few elections — Jonathan Martin (@jmart) October 25, 2023 He was a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund for 20 years: The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), formerly the Alliance Defense Fund, is an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group that works to expand Christian practices within public schools and in government, outlaw abortion, and curtail the rights of LGBTQ people. ADF is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, with branch offices in Washington, D.C., and New York, among other locations. Its international subsidiary, Alliance Defending Freedom International, which is headquartered in Vienna, Austria, operates in over 100 countries.

“Florida schools are not required to teach sex education. However, they are required to teach health education that includes instruction on ‘the consequences of teenage pregnancy.’” — Sex Ed for Social Change

Good morning, class. This week kicks off our sex ed module. It also ends our sex ed module. Governor Ron DeSantis has decided that all modern teens need to know about sex is how not to have it. So, instead of learning about the reproductive system and contraceptive options, we’re going to watch a video of him singing “Coconut” by Harry Nilsson. You’ve likely heard his music if you’ve ever had a father who was sad.

All right, it’s showtime. Let me just press play here on the old VCR …

Okay, so while the bongos were an artistic choice by the governor, the singing here was legally mandated after he signed bill HB 69 into law. Kyle, I see you snickering, but not one single person who wrote the bill gets that joke.

“Theory of Mind,” meet Henry James.

The post Think You Know What Somebody Is Thinking? appeared first on Nautilus.

A Category 5 hurricane hit the city and nobody saw it coming OMG this is the Princess hotel in Acapulco. That’s some serious damage!!! 😫#HurricaneOtis #HurracanOtis #Otis #Acapulco #México pic.twitter.com/MWauoK1bbG — Volcaholic 🌋 (@volcaholic1) October 25, 2023 Whoahhh! Jeeeze!! This video really shows how bad the situation is in Acapulco 😭💔 📹 Jorge Martíne#HurricaneOtis #HurracanOtis #Otis #Acapulco #Mexico pic.twitter.com/XboA3EYoCM — Volcaholic 🌋 (@volcaholic1) October 25, 2023 I didn’t see one news report about any of that yesterday on cable. (I sure am glad I got to hear hour after hour of lying Republicans instead.) Anyway, it’s a good thing global warming is a hoax or this sort of thing might be a problem: Hurricane Otis, a tropical storm that strengthened suddenlyinto the most powerful cyclone known to have hit Mexico’s Pacific Coast,slammed into the tourist resort of Acapulco on Wednesday and battered nearby beach communities. The hurricane’s 165-mph winds shattered windows, rattled tall buildings and snapped power and telephone lines.

Editor’s Note: Saturday, October 28 marks the first anniversary of Herman Daly’s passing.  The father of steady-state economics, Daly was CASSE’s economist emeritus and a long-time board member. We celebrate his clear and stimulating thought with three classic essays from Best of The Daly News.

Wealth, Illth, and Net Welfare

Well-being should be counted in net terms, that is to say we should consider not only the accumulated stock of wealth but also that of “illth;” and not only the annual flow of goods but also that of “bads.” The fact that we have to stretch English usage to find words like illth and bads to name the negative consequences of production that should be subtracted from the positive consequences is indicative of our having ignored the realities for which these words are the necessary names.

Not Big Daddy’s ‘American carnage,’ is it? After Otis strengthened from a tropical storm to a Cat 5 hurricane in 24 hours before slamming into Acapulco on Wednesday, CNN’s Derek Van Dama called it “the new normal…. Climate change? The fingerprints written all over it.” Nope, climate change deniers will insist. After a suspected firearms instructor and Army reservist armed with an AR-style rifle murders 16 in Lewiston, Maine, injures dozens, and throws multiple communities into shelter-in-place lockdown, gunophiles will insist the problem isn’t easy access to guns either. The suspected shooter remains at large as I type this. Hannaford Supermarkets has closed all its stores in Maine until at least 10 a.m. L.L. Bean has closed its facilities across Maine as well. New York Times: The “34th mass killing” this year is the 565th mass shooting in the United States, defined by the Gun Violence Archive as “a minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed, not including any shooter who may also have been killed or injured in the incident.